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Bill Barlee

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 13 July 2026

Hits: 101

Now if you know him you'll know he needs no recommendation. 

A proper BC legend for documenting it's history and gold rushes. Going through my books I'm tempted to sell them, these are collectable, highly sought after - but - also still filled with great information, and many a stream that wasn't worthwhile at 50 cents a day is worthwhile now that gold is at $5,000 per ounce.

Anyways, flipping through them and I still find value, and checking the library find they have none of him in stock, so it appears I won't be selling him off anytime soon...

I know, not Bill Barlee, but when I lived in Calgary I made do with what I could find...

Having recently replaced my (stolen) "Bounty Hunter" metal detector with a vintage Fisher "Gold Bug" (an infinitely better machine at a fraction of the price) these have me pulling at the reins to get out and detect some forgotten and unrecovered caches of my own, or merely scope out some abandoned homesteads and ghost towns for what treasures I may find. The exciting thing about Barlee is he reports on Caches that have been found, as well as detailing any number that haven't. Now - back to my current book on the go - Bruce Ramsey's "Ghost Towns of British Columbia", of which any number are related to the gold rush and a good many have been lost and forgotten in the 62 years since it's first printing. So far it's oddly lyrical and pays a poetic homage to all the vanished places (that are waiting for me to metal detect their remains...). A quote from a newspaper at the time describing a ball put on at a (now ghost) town: "I insist that the wines are not made of burnt sugar and lightening...". Like any great book it's putting me on to a whole pile of other contemporaneous authors from the gold rush, and as I'm a sucker for fist person history... 

I have the detector, I need wheels. Bad.  

Ennui

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 13 July 2026

Hits: 87

The crows this morning, first feeding, 4 in total, walnuts, almonds, peanuts and cashews. 

And there comes a time when they just sit and stare at you - the almonds, peanuts, cashews even, bring no spring to their step. They're fed and they're bored. As if I'm somehow now their entertainment, and I should do something to amaze them...

***

Later in the morning there's a dozen of them, and they; fortunately, are grateful for the food, no need of a show...

Hot like ...

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 12 July 2026

Hits: 89

The weather is hot, and hotter. Yesterday, all day, in the morning a cool breeze but by the afternoon it's a hot blast from a furnace. 

The crows, a trip to Dollarama to vary their diet, some walnuts, almonds, most seem pleasantly surprised, but there's always one, "Peanut Allergy". He walks to a peanut, pecks with some boredom or lassitude, then comes back to stare at me.

It's amazing, I can read his mind. 

He walks over and checks out the walnut, the almond as well, but he's really not that interested. He walks back and stares at me. Other crows creep in to steal his walnut, almond, peanut, he chases a couple of the off but then gives up, he doesn't care, he wants the cashew. And eventually I relent, toss him a couple, and his work is done and once fed he flies off.

***

Daily, checking my blood pressure and heart rate at the Pharmasave. I've become old, overnight and all of a sudden.

Today is bad news - my heart rate up to 66, high, compared to the past week (hovering around 48-54). I check it again.

Better, but again - well, a pulse of "0" seems a bit low.

I check it again, blood pressure varies, pulse the same.

I feel I should call the doctor, but - really, I'm not dying to spend more time in the hospital while they figure this out. If I'm dead I'm dead and probably I should have a drink to take the edge off...

***

Borrow a friend's car for the morning and head to the locker. I recover 7 boxes; time to get rid of some books. 

Box one proves to be filled with candlesticks. I thought I was done, apparently not, another 4 pairs and half dozen strays to be dealt with. They are nice candlesticks, for sure, but I do seem to have too many. One maybe, an Arts-and-Crafts "Goberg" from the turn of the century, simple but unique, it won't realize it's value here. None of them ever do, but I'll keep the best for later.

A lot of these, I've had forever and technology has evolved so that - where I knew once they were unique of valuable I can now use Google Lens to snap a picture and get an idea of their exact value. Such is the democratizing influence of technology, that's made everyone an expert...

And it's an excuse to chat with the antique shop owners about maybe some sort of payment now long overdue before they go closing up for retirement...

Now that I'm not working it's time to call in a few debts...

***

Loot the books, take to the shop. Some have been damaged by water, this always breaks my heart, but - well, work around it. 

I recommend this to the clerk:

"Think of a number" I tell her..."Any number..between 1 and 10..."

She thinks. "9" she answers.

I look her in the eye and tell her "9. You see that? I concentrated and memorized it. This book changed my life..."

Then there are the books I can't yet bring myself to sell, the N.L. (Bill) Barlee books on Gold Panning, The Silkameen, Ghost Towns, etc, vintage, hard to come by, not available online and still full of good information. I'll find a way to hang on to these...

***

Back home, the rest of the boxes, old photos of the kids, (save the photos, donate the frames), countless notebooks - Dollarama, from when things still costed a dollar, how old am I? sketchbooks, mixed media, I'm drowning in art supplies, and - even worse - a box of notes, sketches, writing, etc - this has to be dealt with but how? And this damned heart attack, the cowards way out of dealing with a lifetime of stalled projects, well, it's been indefinitely postponed, probably a good thing but I'm not entirely sure...